Engines: Mos Eisley

By Davion Dare

Mos Eisley is a powerful card. A Location that lets you draw any card type can win you the game. In this article, Davion Dare shows you how to build Light Side and Dark Side decks around Mos Eisley, speeding up decks for such recently spotlighted cards as Han's Promise and Blockade.

When I first looked at Mos Eisley, I immediately thought of Demonic Consultation. Those of you familiar with Magic: The Gathering remember the days when you could use this to get any card from your deck -- and also recall how powerful this was.

Both Mos Eisley and Demonic Consultation have similar effects, although both also have the huge drawback of discarding cards from your library.

Light Side: Turbo Han's Promise

Mos Eisley's effect is, to say it again, powerful. A Location that lets you draw any card type can win you the game, instantly. If you run only one card of the chosen card type, then you'll get the exact card you want -- assuming you built your deck around it. When you have a particular card your deck needs to function properly, Mos Eisley effectively acts as an additional copy of that card. Sure, given enough loss to your library, this can end the game for you; however, in the right deck, it shouldn't be too difficult to make Mos Eisley work.

Lastly, the drawback of discarding cards from your library can even be beneficial, given the right circumstances. Such cards as Han's Promise and Second Wave reward you for having cards in your discard pile, so they work extremely well with Mos Eisley. Han's Promise on its own is a very powerful Mission (just take a look at David Cornford's recent article). Combine it with Mos Eisley, and it's all just icing on the cake. Mos Eisley discards from your library, Han's Promise puts a discarded Character back into play -- so how does it sound to play Orn Free Taa (A) for 3 build points or Yoda (D) for a 10-build point discount?

For our Light Side deck, we'll start with Mos Eisley, four copies of one card type (Mission, in this case) that we'll build our deck around, and an additional Mission card (Han's Promise, naturally) that has synergy with Mos Eisley's "drawback."

First off, the build curve is low, so you can cycle through more cards during setup. While in setup, build as much as you can in the Ground and Space arenas. Try to deploy your utility Characters, if possible. On turn 1, play Mos Eisley. On turn 2, use Mos Eisley to name "Mission," and let the fun begin.

Notes on Character UnitsRemote Seeker Droids are included to give the deck a non-activated, non-Mission source of Force gain. A small Chewbacca (G) engine was also included, as well.

And note that without damage prevention, this deck will need to rely on the Evade abilities of its units to survive.

Notes on Ground Units Don't forget about the Snowspeeder Squads, which can be brought back from the discard pile as well. One trick is to attack with all of your Ground units, then discard two Rebel Speeders to bring back Snowspeeder Squad from your discard pile and get another attack -- only this one at seven dice.

A deck without Jawa Sandcrawlers? I chose not to run them, since Mos Eisley already causes us to lose lots of cards. I didn't want Jawa Sandcrawlers adding to the drain. One of the main reasons was that I chose to run Rebel Hoth Army, since I can tutor for Mos Eisley, then late in the game tutor for Rebel Trenches for that Trenches/Wedge/Speeder lock.

Dark Side: Turbo Blockade

The Dark Side doesn't get to be as effective as the Light Side when it comes to playing with Mos Eisley. It doesn't really have any good ways to make up for its discard drawback, but we do get a good card to build a deck around. It's also a Mission and indeed, also powerful.

Blockade {TPM} stops everyone from deploying units and playing Battles. Dark Side players can deploy first, and then use Blockade to hinder the Light Side. This is usually a minor annoyance, but still, being able to have four consecutive turns without deploying units can be an absolute game-breaker. (For more on Blockade, see Joey Leake's recent article.)

This deck is admittedly more difficult to play than its Light Side counterpart.

During setup, you need to deploy low-cost units and try to let your opponent commit to an arena first with a big unit. Then attack the other two arenas. The goal is to have board advantage in at least one arena after setup.

This deck wants to win by turn 4. If you don't, things really start to look bad on turn 5, when units that were building are allowed to come into play. Coup de Grace is in the deck for this circumstance. Usually in the later turns, Light Side is hanging on by a string; Coup de Grace further helps by taking out a damaged unit without wasting an attack. You can then swarm any Light Side reinforcements trying to come in. In fact, it isn't improbable to have two Coup de Graces by turn 5 as well as having the Force to play each one. (Another possibility here is Vader's Vengeance, but I like not having to worry about dice.)

In this deck, Blockade actually improves a couple of units. Both the Avenger (A) and AT-AT were sub-par units before, but Blockade stops the drawback of units retreating away from them. Suddenly, there's no place left to go.

A major problem for this deck is Han's Promise, as is Chewbacca (G). Han's Promise allows the Light Side to put a Character into play under Blockade. Chewbacca (G) does the same thing, though he needs to be deployed in setup. However, Chewbacca isn't as much of a problem as Han's Promise, since Chewbacca also won't be allowed to retreat -- leaving him as vulnerable as every other unit under Blockade.

As I've said, the Dark Side isn't as effective as the Light Side when using Mos Eisley, but its versatility and power simply can't be ignored. Of course, I'm sure Han's Promise and Blockade are not the only cards that work well with Mos Eisley. Try looking through your cards and single card strategies and see what you can come up with.

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